It's not a matter of comfort, I just think the indexes are exceedingly efficient and it's hard to find a consistent edge. Fear and greed move stocks in some nutty ways. Sometimes it doesn't take much to distort price. Those emotions are present in the indexes too, but they are muted and muddled by the 10's of thousands of participants. People are also sometimes lazy, sloppy and stupid when it comes to executing stock orders. If I am there to provide liquidity to offset their poor order execution, I can be rewarded for the risk. That doesn't happen in the most liquid markets.
Hi Lescor, Would you mind listing the stocks traded, with the respective time frames for the entries and exits, or some variation of this (similar to the way Neke lists his trades)...? thanks, Walt
Lescor i know you don't want to talk strategy, but would you mind if i asked wether or not level 2, and tape reading is part of your trading? thanks kon
Anything that happened in the latter part of 2008 was a once in a career event (I hope I'm wrong!). I would be very happy to see a fraction the action we got in that amazing period. Numbers from then are from another world and you can't compare them to anything since. Even with a decent uptick in volatility to start 2010, there is still a real lack of liquidity and most of the time stocks are just flat lined and dead. It is definitely not the time to load up and swing hard. Btw, that day Eric made 7 figures was the day the regulators implemented the "no shorting of financials" rule. Sadly Merrill Lynch was one of the firms he was referring to that couldn't get their s**t together in time and Echotrade canceled ALL short orders just minutes before the bell. Selling that open was the greatest short set up of all time and I would have banked $500k in half an hour (my system tracks the fills I would have had). That was a hard one to just let slip by, but you can't do anything after the fact. Good times those were....
I find what goes down faster than up actually outdated. In these mkts (sorry, i only trade ES) while daytrading a stock index the moves are in my opinion equal in speed. Ok, yesterday the initial move up was news related because the shorts got 'Greeked" (me included) as price shot up on news. Todays action, and i assume stocks also, we took a drop after the rth opening bar closed 2 ticks off its high print and the next bar closed on its low tick, flopped around for about 15 minutes and then tanked, made a 2 bar reversal 1030est bar and closed out the first hours trading and closed up on its high tick. Shorts were notified to at least get out of their trades. I used to be in the crowd of price moves faster down than up...........but with todays computers with one click instant fills that no longer applies. In stocks that very well could still hold some validity because i assume there are still far more stock BUYERS than stock short sellers, that certainly holds true for the public. Futures do trade different than stocks, i will grant you that. Not saying one is better than the other for individuals but certainly it is wise to understand the difference. Stocks have a certain float, futures create their float on the fly as every seller finds a buyer and every buyer finds a seller. Liquid futures are just fun to trade. PS: The financial blowup from June 2007 on was a lifetime event which was far from the norm. Thats what is so great about trading...........opinions do not matter, the mkts actions are not your worry, the only worry is how you perform as an individual. Nothing else counts.
Hi, I've seen this statement before by another prop trader I personally know and now I've seen it by you a few times. Therefore, I'm now curious and will ask the following questions to understand what you're actually saying so that I can better understand other prop traders. * Any futures traders at the prop you're at that trades the Emini ES? * What other prop firms you know that has Emini ES traders if your opinion is based upon other firms and not your own assuming there''s no Emini ES traders at your firm? * I've seen you say before in another thread you don't trade the Emini ES and now you say you trade it sometimes. Therefore, the sometimes you do trade it, are you profitable in trading it? * If you're profitable in trading the Emini ES, couldn't you say you're the only one you know that's profitable in trading the Emini ES regardless how many times you trade it and regardless what time frames being used (sarcasm not intended)? * How long you've been trading the Emini ES regardless to how many times you've traded it? * You say you don't know any profitable traders that trade the Emini ES...you talking about a specific trading style (e.g. daytrading)? I've asked the above specific questions because I've seen a few other prop traders say they don't know any profitable Emini ES traders while almost in the same breath say they that when they trade the Emini ES...they are profitable but via a different time frame. That makes me conclude they (including you) are really talking about a specific type of Emini ES trader when they say they don't know anyone that's consistently profitable in trading it. My personal opinion is that if someone is consistently profitable in trading something...what time frame they use, trading style, position size, commission rates, institutional/arcade/prop/retail or whatever is irrelevant to being labeled as a consistent profitable trader. For example, I trade the Russell 2000 TF futures fulltime and I trade a few times per year the Energy CL futures via a different time frame. If someone ask me are you a profitable light crude oil CL trader...my answer will be YES without implying any profits generated from it is not important or something I dabble in because a trade is a trade...no need to minimize it. If so...please send me a check for any profits you make while trading the Emini ES. Mark
Would you mind elaborating on the italicized sentence, please? Lescor - really appreciate what you're doing. As a guy who's in a similar position to where you were before you actually took the plunge to go learn the ropes at a prop firm, this thread is priceless.
LESCOR, I was wondering if you have always scaled in and out of all your trades and if not did you notice a big improvement in your results once you started.Thanks